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Julia Child's French Bread With A Plate Of Daring Bakers!

February 29, 2008

You got it...that's what I did with the latest Daring Bakers' Challenge. I stuffed it with chocolate and ate it at 4 o'clock!....Why? Because it was French bread and because it was my favorite snack when I was a kid, that's why, ahahah!

After the wonderful Tender Potato Bread a few months ago, Mary from The Sourdough and Sara from I Like To Cook bring us French Bread via Julia Child. We were given the challenge at the beginning of the month while my mom was visiting. I went for an enthusiastic "French bread by Julia Child?! Right on!", while mom went for a suspect "Julia Child? Who's that?!" Ah yes....I had forgotten that Julia Child is to us what Maite and La Cuisine Des Mousquetaires is to you. Precisely: who? what?where? I had not heard or seen one of her shows,or reruns until I moved to the US. I fell in love with her style, her gusto, her love for good food. And yet, it took me until this challenge to ever make anything from her cookbooks. No particular reason really, just that 24 hour days are much too short for me and all the things I want to bake and cook!!

Well, with all the shopping and chatting that we did with my mom, we never got around to make the challenge bread together and it was kind of sad making it after she was gone but the neighbors were really happy when I brought the loot down to our quickly gathering! After a few years of being neighbors we know a whole lot of stuff about one another and they know I put Gertie and Bob, the crazy-going- starters, to good use on the weekend and have plenty of loaves to give extras away. The twins asked that same week when was I going to make French bread again. "Well, funny you ask...right now!" , "can we come and help?" Oh gosh what have I gotten myself into with my briliant ideas?! "Oh well, the house is a mess really, why don't I call you in the middle and you tell me if you think the dough has risen enough?" That settled it as they love the come check on the small ball that keeps inflating, their favorite part beig the punching and slapping of the dough on the counter to knead it. In one of the later videos of Julia making French bread the chef who is baking with her slaps the dough 800+ times...golly! I usually go 10-15 minutes but I might try the counting method next time!

Anyways...back to the bread. I went for what B. calls the "Naked" approach and no he does not mean me...don't start the 'eeewwws" before it's time people! That means without any of the things that I would normally use to make my life easier when baking something. In that case that meant kneading by hand, no pretty and steady baker's couche, no quarry tiles to simulate a baker's oven and no steam injection oven like I have at work sometimes (that thing is the bomb!). That brought me back eons ago to my first bread baked in an oven and starring at the brick I pulled out that first time! Why did I tell B. I was going to "Naked challenge" this one ?!!Suddenly I started having visions of bricks coming out of the oven...But no, everything went well, and unlike Julia, I did not wait the recommended 2 hours to cut one loaf open. I love the bread when it is still warm, after about 1 hour or so of cooling time, the dough inside has finished its little extra baking business and you can start eating it up!

For the canvas or couche necessary for the baguettes to keep their shape during their final rise, I used a clean cotton sprayed with water and flour. I let it dry and it became as stiff as an overstarched shirt (but it's not "real" starch that you would use while ironing). When it was time to move the baguettes on it, I sprinkle more flour and the creased remain in place quite easily like that. I sprayed the bread with water (99 cents sprayer at Wallie World) and baked the loaf and epi on a pizza stone sprinkled with cornmeal. I transferred the baguettes to regular baking sheet line with parchment paper. Both methods gave me the same nice crispy crust and bottom.

I dealt with the steam issue by placing an empty 9x9inch baking pan in the 450F oven, and when the loaves were in I added one cup of water, closed the door and let it get steamy, then I repeated the operation once after 5 minutes, which differs from the recipe slightly but there is an explanation. Past 450F, the heat from my oven sets the fire alarm on within 2 seconds of our opening the door (but you could smoke a brisket right underneath without the fumes setting it off...go figure!), so it was either have my ears bleed three times every 3 minutes or twice every 5 minutes. Don't rely on my maths but that is one time less....heavenly silence in the neighborhood!!

I would have posted the recipe here but I am afraid to send Blogger to a black vault it is so long. However thanks to Mary and Sara, you can locate it here. And I am fully aware that my Epi is not figuratively "hot"...it did get a little too brown, but I was completely enthralled in an email conversation with Tanna (and not food related for once!!) and completely forgot about it. It was great the very same night, let's just say it fed the seagulls the next day...

Will I make it again? I probably will but I will give it one less rise and I will reduce the salt by a teaspoon. It seems that we all had different degree of saltiness in our bread this month and it is not surprising given all the different varieties available. The directions may be long but they are there to teach, guide and help. A recipe is a tutorial in many circumstances, especially when dealing with the basics of bread baking as this one does. The active standing time in the kitchen is very small as the dough does not need you to rise away, but it does require patience and attention...give a little love and you'll get plenty back....

Thank you Sara and Mary for fun challenge and to Ivonne, Lisa and Mary for all their hard work behind the scenes. Go check the other Daring Bakers on this month merry bread dance!

French bread and chocolate I have not tried! I loved your tale of making and baking this. Again, I would love to live next door so I could watch all of these creations happening in real time. Wonderful! I love this recipe, have made it twice and plan to do it again soon!

You made so many wonderful breads from this recipe. I agree with you this recipe was so easy to make and so much fun to eat.

Now I'll have to try spraying a kitchen towel with starch...maybe that would keep the towel from leeching all the water out of my gluten free loaves. Since they won't have any gluten to make a coat...the "naked" dough likes to bond with the cloth and become Blob-like.

Chocolate! How very French! Right On!!Always a surprise from you: now I'm off to spray my linen lightly with water and then flour it! It's those small things I love.I love your continuing adventures with the twins.

My mother taught me to eat chocolate and fresh white bread, she had learnt that when she worked in France when she was young! it's delicious, next time I make this bread, that's how I am going to eat it! Thanks!

What gorgeous bread! I recently pulled out my copy of "Baking with Julia" and tried something a little simpler (brioche), but I took a look at the French bread recipe and wondered if I could ever attempt it. I don't think I have the patience. Maybe one day I will attempt. I don't think it would look this good though.

That looks lovely! My first bread baking experience was a complete disaster. I was making Challah (Jewish egg bread), and after I had put all the ingredients together, let it rise and kneaded the dough.... I realized that I had forgotten to put in the eggs! Into EGG bread! Oh, it was terrible (and yet, very funny in retrospect!).

The chocolate with that gorgeous bread is hilarious, Helene! And how cool about the technique to "starch" the dish towel to hold the dough. Totally excellent! I'll keep that in mind since I'm bound to try another French bread recipe. Don't know if I'm up to "slapping it" 800 times, though. Bwahahaha!

Lovely looking bread. You are such a wonder Helene..am a regular visitor to your blogs and u will always be my inspiration. Anything you do turns wonderful...magic tricks eh? The trick on the canvas cloth was brilliant. I need to enhance my blogs..help !!!!!

Glad you went the naked approach. My CS just pointed out a chef on TV doing something complicated and said 'See he doesnt need his KA and all that other stuff". That chcocolate looks so yummy. Makes me want to try again and stuff inside while warm.

Now that is a frickin sandwhich!!!!!!!!!!!! I have a question....I had these wonderful vanilla bean scones. I was trying to recreate w/a scone recipe at home. Do you have any idea approximately how much vanilla bean or vanilla bean paste I could use in a 1 batch recipe of scones before I vanilla beaned myself out....in essence do you have any clue how much would be too much???? You ARE the professional.

Bread stuffed with chocolate. Oh my GOODNESS! As ever, your baking looks delicious. If I hadn't given up chocolate for Lent I would be defrosting my spare loaf and getting a bar of Dairy Milk from the corner shop right this minute!

YES! i am so happy i'm not the only one who does that. i warm it up some so the chocolate is nice and warm and gooey.

why wait for 16:00 when you can have that for breakfast? (i've been known to do that a lot) i like dark chocolates so it's really good with coffee (or tea). talk about getting a really good start of the day!

Your bread looks amazing.. well as with anything you make!! and that snack of bread and chocolate, well I might just have to try it sometime soon. I too found my bread too salty but I thought it was just my fault, so if I make it again I'll take your advice, actually your post is very informative and I can't wait to try again the bread with your recommendations (the starching of the linen especially). You are awesome!! Contrats on your bread.

Helen, I made this bread this week, and am just posting it. Everything was fine except that the crust was harder than any other bread I have made so far - is that the way it is supposed to be? I too found the salt way too much!